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I'm from NJ and plan on working in the NY/NJ market (though I do love DC and plans could change). I have the distinguished scholars award at seton hall which on top of free tuition has other benefits like visiting the Supreme Court and dinners with faculty. I was just pulled off the WL at Cornell and told their aid is pretty much depleted. I also received an email off of GULC's preferred wait list that they have me in the first group to extend admission.

GULC has been my first choice for a long time, but I have a deposit due to either SHU or Cornell on June 1st, before I hear back from GULC. Any thoughts you TLS gurus can provide?

It depends on what your goals are. What do you want to do post graduation?

Calculate your total COA for each school. Include accrued interest if you need to borrow all costs. Cornell, for example, will amount to about $260,000 after you finish law school & have to start repaying. Add this to any undergaduate debt that you've incurred.

What are the stips at Seton Hall?
What do you want to do with your law degree?

If you want biglaw/corporate, Cornell is a clear winner
If you want to do state/local government, that program at Seton Hall sounds pretty sweet

Maybe you'll get off the waitlist at GULC, in which case the deposit you pay now is chicken feed in the grand scheme of things (even if it sucks having to come up with the cash today)
But for now you should make your decision as if GULC rejected you

Cornell > GULC > Seton Hall $$$

I have no loans coming out of undergrad, I went to my state school with a good scholarship in anticipation of grad work, so I was able to bank some money to put towards law school (only about a years worth of housing though).

As for what I plan on doing, I want to be flexible. While I could very much see myself in personal injury or defense work, I'm very open to other forms I've had less exposure to, so I'm hesitant to make the type of law my deciding factor.
My parents offered to put money towards my interest payments so I'm only paying principle off the loans since they weren't paying anywhere near what they helped my brother with for ug, but I know they might not have enough to swing long term.

The stips on shu are top 50% and 2.5gpa. Dropping below 2.5 but staying in top 50 gets me at half scholarship.

I will say because of my schedule I can't visit Cornell before the deposit was do and from what I heard from my friend who is in ithaca it is not my style (I'm very much a busy, things need to be going on around me kind of person) so I will admit I'm hesitant to put the deposit on Cornell blindly unless someone says it would be a disaster for my future not to and I'd be unemployable haha.

If your goal is to do personal injury or insurance defense work, then the easy answer is take the full scholarship at Seton Hall. For a career in these fields the primary concern is bar passage, not biglaw hiring stats.

Going to Cornell will give you more opportunity, but graduating debt free gives more flexibility, so while you don't need to decide what you want to do now, you should at least figure out UG your career track is best served by the opportunities available from a T14, or if keeping your debt low is better.

That being said, the stips at Seton Hall are reasonable from their perspective, but not that good from yours. If you're willing to drop out if you lose your full scholly, Seton Hall is a perfectly fine choice. If not, go to Cornell

dingbat wrote:Going to Cornell will give you more opportunity, but graduating debt free gives more flexibility, so while you don't need to decide what you want to do now, you should at least figure out UG your career track is best served by the opportunities available from a T14, or if keeping your debt low is better.

That being said, the stips at Seton Hall are reasonable from their perspective, but not that good from yours. If you're willing to drop out if you lose your full scholly, Seton Hall is a perfectly fine choice. If not, go to Cornell

I think that seton hall stipulation is harsh. Everything works out if you hit top 50, but what happens if you don't? 46k a year in tuition that only landed about 40 percent of its grads into firms is way too much. I agree with dingbat, I'd only go to SH if you are willing to drop out if you dont get the scholarship renewed.
Fwiw, I chose Cornell over the full ride at SH. I didn't like the idea of gambling with that stipulation. Cornell has much, much better employment statistics.
Also, as someone who was born in NJ, I wouldn't recommend Newark as an exciting place.

dingbat wrote:

top30man wrote: Also, as someone who was born in NJ, I wouldn't recommend Newark as an exciting placefor living

as a likely rutgers-Newark 0-L, fml